Former U.S. Amabassador to The Gambia, Auburn native and Edward Little grad Pamela White gave this commencement address to before the graduating class at the University of Maine Orono on May 14. Reprinted with permission of the University of Maine Orono.

Hi everyone,

It is a privilege to be here to share this special day with you at my alma mater. President Hunter thank you for your hospitality and your vision for this great university. Jim Settele and the fabulous international affairs graduate students, thank you for your endless support and enthusiasm. My devoted husband, my fabulous son and my 94 year old dad who are here today and to my 95 year old mom who is here in spirit — I love you. My alpha phi sisters — what a joy to share this day with you. And to all of you in the audience, I am honored to be your guest speaker.

Recently, I was with two of my close high school buddies that I hadn’t seen in years. We were all doing a bit of bragging, but I figured I had them both beat. SO I said a bit puffed up “gentleman you have both done well, BUT I will be the commencement speaker this year at the University of Maine graduation ceremonies”. One of them immediately responded “really — gee — I thought they normally had a FAMOUS person”. OK, maybe I am NOT a FAMOUS person but I am extremely well known in remote parts of the world – places like (and I am not kidding) Timbucktu. I have spent a life time far away from home, trying to make a difference. But I was Made in Maine. I was born in Lewiston and went to Edward Little High School and graduated from this very university in 1971. I proud to say I am a Red Eddie and a Black Bear.

I don’t have a lot of time, so let me be blunt. I am not happy with the current state of world affairs. I believe the rhetoric that I hear day after day on the media will not lead to the peaceful existence that we all want. I don’t think my generation did a very good job of making this planet safer and healthier and more equitable. I believe that every single person in this audience has the ability to build a better highway to the future than the current very rocky road. And you know what? The little state of Maine holds some of the keys to a better future. More about that later.

A little personal history: When I was 18 years old my favorite cousin came home from Viet Nam near death. The horror of war became very real. That same week a team came to my high school from Washington DC to talk about the Peace Corps. They told us how even one individual could make the world a better place. Right then and there, I told my family that after UMaine I would join the Peace Corps. I can tell you my Marine Corps father (HI DAD) was NOT very happy (I mean AFRICA come ON) but I had a MISSION. I truly thought I would save the world – or at least Africa or at least my village. So I got on a plane, spent some time learning a bit about culture, a lot about teaching English and something about snake bites and boiling water. And before I knew it I was in MY village. The one I was going to save. Boy was I shocked. There was no running water, no electricity, few vegetables, and NO WHITE PEOPLE. And they wore funny clothes, they had to walk an hour to wash and get water to cook and drink. There were no televisions, one telephone at the post office and four or five radios shared by the entire village. They cooked outside, over a wood fire. Their life style reminded me of our yearly camping trip to Moosehead Lake. Which was fine for a WEEK. HOW was I going to LIVE like this for TWO years??

At first I was just plain scared – would these Africans hurt me, humiliate me, ignore me? NO and NO and NO – these people it turned out, would unconditionally love me. They would teach me important lessons that would stay with me for the rest of my life. You do not need a college education to be wise, you do not need running water to be clean and you don’t need a television to be entertained. Those funny clothes were beautifully handmade and practical – I was happily wearing them after a month. Their so-called poverty was only true in terms of dollars. They were so rich in terms of culture and history and love of family and respect for elders. They SHARED everything they had – there was no ME ME ME. I learned that understanding other people’s ways and adapting to their life styles was not necessarily easy but fascinating. FUN. DOABLE. TRANSFORMATIVE. I didn’t save my village – it opened my eyes to an entire new world – a wonderful new world. My village saved me.

I took those lessons with me for the next 45 years mostly in Africa but ending as ambassador to Haiti helping to rebuild a nation brought to her knees by a devastating earthquake that killed over 200,000 people. I worked hard – 18 hours a day, seven days a week. And so in September 2015 I joyfully returned home to my beloved state of Maine. A Maine I remembered as not very diverse.

And much to my surprise in the town of my birth, Lewiston, there was a thriving African community. Those transplanted Africans had a rough start in their American adopted city – just like I had in my African town so many years ago. But a small miracle took place over the years.

Since 2001 when the Somalis first arrived, per capita income in Lewiston has soared, crime rates are down as much as 16% and Lewiston’s center’s reputation has changed from “the COMBAT ZONE” in 2000 to being named an ALL AMERICAN city in 2007!

And we also have THE soccer story. On November 7, 2015, the Lewiston Blue Devils’ high school soccer team won the state championship – for the FIRST TIME EVER! Team members included players from Turkey, Germany, Congo, Kenya and mostly Somalia. A competing coach said they were the most unselfish, talented team he had ever seen. There were 4,500 cheering fans in the stands = a record number for any soccer game EVER in Maine. CNN wrote “Lewiston’s ability to forge relationships in a quickly changing population is an example to the world”. One of the Somalis said after the game “we don’t want to hear refugees won the game, we are no longer refugee soccer players, we are Blue Devil soccer players.” This is hard for a Red Eddie from Auburn to say but: Blue Devils WELL DONE. You make us proud to be Mainers.

I still hear rumblings that many immigrants speak English with an accent. I get such a kick out of that. TRULY fellow Mainers have you heard the jokes about OUR accent. If you can understand these next couple of sentences I have two things to say – you are indeed a Mainer and you have NO right to comment on anyone else’s funny accent. “Pahk ovah theyah: that’s wayah tha pahty is” and “Deah, them baby deah at tha faya were wicked cunnin”.

The real news is we are ALL different and different it turns out is GOOD. I can assure when my mother was dying just over a month ago in Central Maine hospital she didn’t care that her favorite nurse spoke with a slight accent. She cared that he was professional and gentle with extra soft hands. She loved her Somali nurse.

Each and every one of you should be raising your voices for acceptance of different cultures and languages and religions.

I can tell you with absolute CERTAINTY that we need a strong military = especially those ships that are being built in Bath. But I promise you building walls and bombing the heck out of communities in foreign countries and supporting drastic torture techniques is NOT NOT going to win the war on terror. There are no walls high enough and no bombs big enough to wipe out hatred. People can wipe out hatred. Love can wipe out hatred. We need our rhetoric to be as committed and inspirational for good as the bad guys’ words are for evil.

The USA has a negative growth rate – we NEED immigrants. Especially we need immigrants in Maine. We are a state with a youth drain and a brain drain. We should celebrate when immigrants want to come to our state to work in our schools and hospitals and to pay taxes and to care for our VERY fast growing elderly population. We will also celebrate with wild enthusiasm every graduate who helps to build a better future for our precious state of Maine. We NEED you too.

I will leave you with my favorite quote by Nelson Mandela – my super hero who after thirty years in prison came out and built a nation that accepted the very people that had jailed him.

I quote: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.

I only ask you learn to love the bizarre, the different, the difficult. Open up those wonderful hearts and minds.

Graduates:

You are young and healthy with inquisitive minds. Travel if you can – even if you have to sleep on floors and take the cheap seats. Eat something weird, dance to new music, wear a colorful shirt, speak a new language. The world – not just Orono or Maine or New England or the USA – no the WORLD awaits you.